Estate Planning

Somewhere around age 60, most people start worrying about mental decline. That is not surprising since we see it all around us. An estimated 15 to 20 percent of adults 65 and older suffer from cognitive impairment and at least 10% suffer from dementia. At the same time, adults are working longer. Forty percent of people 55 and older are still working, compared with only 29 percent in 1993. Expect...

(This is the final in a series of articles about Texas probate.) There are very few types of documents that are as misunderstood as the Affidavit of Heirship. Perhaps that is because the same name is commonly used to describe two different documents. There is the Affidavit of Heirship, also known as the Affidavit of Facts Concerning the Identity of Heirs, that is described in the Estates Code, and then there...

(This is the fourth in a series regarding probate procedures in Texas.) It took four courts and several years but, by gosh, justice was done in the case of Hennig v. Didyk. This story is about divorce, death and money. Matt and Wendy married and then divorced. In the divorce decree, Matt was awarded his employment benefits, including his life insurance. After the divorce, Matt logged onto the employer’s benefits system...

By Kendra Rey Just what is your relationship with your Valentine?  In this month of l’amour, do you know if that person you are cozying up with is your spouse or just a close friend? And what is the legal effect of that? (Leave it to a lawyer to make “Love” something debatable!) If you have gone through a ceremonial marriage with your significant other, then you know you have a...

Harold never wanted to spend the time or money making out a will. He was fond of saying “Why would I want to waste my money? It won’t be my problem – I’ll be dead. Let my relatives figure it out.” Hahaha. Good one, Harold. What Happens If You Die Without A Will In Texas It was only after Harold was dead, his assets were frozen, and his creditors were clamoring at...

Most relationships change over time. Woody Allen summed it up nicely in the movie Annie Hall: “A relationship, I think, is, is like a shark, you know, it has to constantly move forward or it dies, and I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.”   If your relationship with an agent you named in your Durable Power of Attorney (DPOA) has turned into a dead shark,...

No Thanksgiving would be complete without sending up a big thanks to Congress for the Garn-St. Germain Act.   What? You’ve never heard of Garn -St. Germain? Grab yourself a cup of coffee and settle into a comfortable chair. This is one story you want to hear. Why Did The Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act Get Passed? It starts back in 1982 with a seemingly-innocent little paragraph known as the “due-on-sale clause.” This...

Merrily we have drifted into the world of the internet while abandoning file cabinets, stripping picture albums and tossing piles of unwanted paper along the way. The lure of the cloud is impossible to ignore. You alone hold the magic formula of logins and passwords and URLs where your treasures may be found.  Financial documents and accounts for banking, brokerages and cryptocurrency, frequent-flier and credit-card points, photos, blogs, social-media accounts,...

SHHHHH. Can we talk privately? It’s about the kids. I know you have some assets that you want to set aside for them, but…….. you’ve been worried. You don’t want the kids to become trust fund babies. If they get even a hint about how much wealth they will have when you die – well, let’s just say they won’t have much incentive to pursue an education or trade. I have...

Let rich Aunt Meg die without a will and then just wait for the swarm of heirs to descend on her estate.  You won’t be able to move through her mansion living room without stepping on one. There is an orderly process of inheritance under the law.  It is called the law of descent and sets out the order that Aunt Meg’s kindred will inherit. A kin who steps into line...

In the public mind, the term “probate” is often associated with expense, delay, suffering and, sometimes, prolonged legal disputes. While there are many probate myths and misconceptions, it is basically a court-supervised method of handling the property of a deceased individual. During probate, the court will appoint someone to be in charge of the deceased person’s financial affairs, property, assets, and debts. Outstanding debts are addressed, and the remaining...

Several years ago I had a probate consultation with three very nice people whose great-aunt had recently died.  They apologized for their somewhat disheveled appearance and explained that they had spent the day dismantling furniture, prying up floorboards and digging up the backyard of their great-aunt’s residence.  It seems that their great-aunt did not believe in banks, and so she kept her savings in cash and hid it in...